Sunday Reflection: Mark 13:33-37

Today we mark the official beginning of the Advent Season, and I think it is appropriate today to discuss the purpose of the season. Advent is a season of preparation. It is meant to teach us how to keep ourselves ready for the return of our Lord at the Second Coming via a four week crash course on preparation for the Celebration of the Nativity of our Lord at Christmas. We see the importance of this preparation laid out in today's reading from the Gospel of Mark, which reads as follows:

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

We see described here the need for vigilance in our preparation for the Lord's return. He will return one day and it will be unannounced. We will not know the day of His return, but when it happens we ought to be ready, for woe to those who are not. We must think of ourselves as the servants of the Lord, and the houses that we are keeping prepared are our hearts. If our hearts are not prepared for the Lord at his return, we will not be accepted into His Kingdom.

A point of clarification to make here is that our vigilance should not be out of a fear of retribution. The Lord is our Father, and like a child we ought to be expecting His return from a place of joy. I can picture all those videos of children who have military fathers that are seeing them for the first time at their return. The reaction is always one of jubilation, and we should be likewise in our anticipation for the return of the Lord.

Let us then watch with joy for the return of the Lord, so that when he comes we will ready to join Him in His Kingdom where there will be unending jubilee. Words are not enough to express the reward for those who remain awake for His coming, so let us pray that we are not the ones who have fallen asleep.

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